Taipei, Jan. 14 (CNA) It is not a sure bet that Kuomintang (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou will win the March presidential election, but ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Frank Hsieh has 10 weeks to turn the tides of a campaign that favors his opponent, following his party's humiliating defeat in the legislative elections, academics said at a roundtable Monday.
The roundtable was organized by the pro-independence Taiwan Thinktank and invited foreign representatives, scholars and election observers for the discussion on the impacts of the legislative election.
Scholars said the momentum was obviously on the opposition KMT's side after it won 81 of 113 legislative seats in the poll last Saturday, but its presidential candidate Ma could not be seen as a shoo-in to win the March election just yet.
The DPP won only 27 of the seats, with the remaining five going to candidates from other parties and an independent.
The DPP may have seen a big drop in its seat share in the Legislative Yuan but it still held around 40 percent of the vote cast in Saturday's polls, said Hsu Yung-ming, an assistant professor at Soochow University in Taipei.
While turnout in Saturday's election was 59 percent, traditionally, the turnout of Taiwan's presidential election is a lot higher, and this can create a different outcome for the two parties, academics said. Voter turnout in Taiwan's presidential elections have been around 80 percent in the past.
"That tells us that the DPP is probably down but not out, " said Raymond Wu, a professor at Fu Jen Catholic University. However, Hsieh has to bring about change with performance in 68 days, as there are only so many days before the March 22 presidential election, which is not easy, said Wu.
"For Hsieh to do that and win back the voters, the first thing he needs to do is achieve consolidation and unity within his party and fix the DPP's relations with its pan-Green ally Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU), whose spiritual leader, former president Lee Teng-hui, had been mercilessly criticizing the DPP for the past year," Wu said.
Hsieh also needs to make a decision on whether to stay consistent with his reconciliation and co-existence approach toward his KMT rivals and China, Wu said. Finally, he had to address the credibility issue of both himself and the party by "saying things you mean and doing things you say, " Wu said.
Hsieh is expected to stay with his reconciliation and co-existence approach to try to appeal to voters in the middle of the political spectrum, Soochow University professor Lo Chih-cheng said.
The DPP candidate also has to ease tensions within his own party as well because some party members do not agree with his ideas, said Lo.
Lo said it is still possible for Hsieh to win the presidency as issues of the presidential election and the legislative election are "totally different". Namely, the national identity issue will be back in the forefront, which favors the DPP, said Lo.